“Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.”

..a quote by Maya Angelou, enlightening. I recently made a decision to leave my bike sponsor of more than 6.5 years, DK Bicycles. I just want to say that I am really grateful for all that they did for me, I got to travel the world, make some of the best friends, got to go on Megatour, and even design signature handlebars! Really, it is the most any company in BMX Freestyle has ever done for a girl, and for that I truly do thank them for all that they have done.

I confided in some of my closest friends and mentors about my relationship with the company and how it has changed over the last two years or so. Face to face confrontation whenever possible is always better, however, across the miles, over a computer, or via text, I learned that a lack of communication can most definitely stir up some frustrations and create misunderstandings. I am someone that believes in professionalism and that it is very important to keep a healthy relationship in business and friendships and love; good communication is key. In life, I believe it is important to work hard, appreciate what you have, who you have in your life, and equally it is also important to feel appreciated and no matter how much time passes, that your hard work shouldn’t go unnoticed. I also feel that even though it may be the easier route for some to “just take the money and run,” at the end of the day, I’d rather keep my pride and stay true to my beliefs. Maybe I’m from a different generation, (ex.I don’t live my life for more likes on instagram enough haha), whatever the case, it was time for me to try to enjoy what I’m doing on my bike without any stress or wonder if I am still a part of something. I am still doing what I always do, just without any uncertainty. I just read an interview with a pro skateboarder, Marc Johnson, in which he rips into the skate industry and how a lot of the skaters are just as guilty for “taking the money and run” attitude. The interview seems to parallel my situation with riding for a smaller rider-owned company that merged with a bigger corporation that is moving in a different direction. When you have a minute, read it here.

Aside from leaving DK, Stoney and I were graced with a visit from my friend Becci and her boyfriend Dustin for two weeks. Aside from getting severely sunburned and attacked by mosquitoes, I think they had a really good time. I drove them all over Austin, upto Dallas and back to ride some spots, took them to shoot guns for their first time, introduced them to quesadillas, and the idea of homecooking instead of their favorite place on earth: Mac Donalds. Ugh! haha Here are a few photos I shot during their visit:

Hmm..Lip tattoos: Denise Baca (Left), Becci (right) got “AUSTIN” tattooed on the inside of her lip 2 years ago her first visit to America, and TX, and first tattoo ever

In America, you only need about $40 and a valid ID or passport to shoot guns..in Germany, guns are strictly for military and law enforcement.

Yep, then after Becci and Dustin’s visit, Tomas Fuentes super nice kid from Chile came to Austin on his way to Woodward West to hang with Coco Zurita. Here is a photo I shot of Tomas at our friend Morgan’s (frenchie)’s back yard..

Aside from trying to show people around Austin, shooting pics, and riding, I have been keeping busy, working on a little video edit for one of my sponsors, Freegun Underwear. I am trying to get some local bands to let me use their song for it, which I think will work out great because I love to support the homies, and Freegun prefers I use music that is “cleared” to use. Once I get that sorted, should have a nice little edit out in no time 🙂

A few holidays passed since my last update, including Flag Day, June 14th, which also happens to be my birthday! It’s been a few years since I’ve had a new frame, I even sanded the paint off and clear coated it to buy myself sometime to maybe get a new one, but it never came. So in the end, Stoney bought me a T-1 “Ruben” frame, and it looks sweet and feels amazing! The specs are pretty similar to what I was running but it has a more laid back head tube angle, 74 degrees instead of 75, I can’t believe I notice that much of a difference! It’s only been a few weeks, so far so good, I forgot how exciting it is to build up a new frame! Thanks Stoney!! Huge thank you to Afro Pat for being a good friend, and “get shit done” homie, and Hanson Little at Empire for helping me put this together..seriously, thank you both so much, and Joe Rich for helping Stoney figure out what frame to get me as a surprise. I am so lucky to have so many good friends here in Austin!

Oh yeah, so in the midst of all of these changes, my friend Mo and I decided to take a Motorcyle safety course so we could get our “M” endorsement on our TX drivers license, a requirement in order to take the test here in TX. We opted for Total Rider school’s Basic course since they offered it earlier in the week. I couldn’t afford to take off a weekend from work since the 3-day course was from 6am-noon. Our instructor goes by “Uncle Mullet” and if you ever need to renew your motorcycle license and would like to be entertained while you get informed, this is the guy to go to. I sent these photos to a few family members who agree that they would rather my new hobby be “Basket weaving,” (which incase you didn’t realize, it’s a lot safer).

Mo Malone and I with “Uncle Mullet”

The course still went on “RAIN OR SHINE” and so we went the poor man’s rain gear route and picked up some “fresh” trash bags haha, actually held up pretty good all things considered.

the fleet of Kawaski Eliminators, I think they were 125 cc’s..nothing crazy but super fun!

And we completed our course! We mastered the parking lot! My friend Tom, “Tom 516” from Long Island lives here in Austin now helped us out, threw a new front tire on the Honda we have been trying to get on the road. I bought some side mirrors, we got the timing adjusted, and now whenever we have some extra $, ‘can take it to get inspected, and registered so we can finally go on some rides!!! Yay!! Here she is pre-new front tire and mirrors.

In addition to new bikes, motorcycle education and parts, I invested some birthday cash into a portable radio I call the “ghetto blaster” that uses the same battery as my drill and is rechargeable! Woo!! This little thing kicks so much ass! Took it to San Marcos park on 4th of July for a session before work, and it got everyone at the park going! It was about 100degrees out, no shade, but the jams kept everyone’s energy in the bowl and gave everyone a boost to keep the session going; I love this thing:

I have been loving life, and appreciating everyone I have in it, my friend Adrianne just had another birthday, her and I lived together in Arlington, TX at one point circa 2005 and have had so many laughs! Cheers to many more! Shot from birthday dinner at Bouldin Creek, babe-fest..

Oh and even though I had to work, you better believe that I was cheering for the annual Nathan’s International Hot Dog eating Championship, held every 4th of july in Coney Island, NY! Reigning champion, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, ate 69 hot dogs for the win this year in the mens division and Sonia “the Black Widow” Thomas ate 36 3/4 hot dogs for the ladies title. HA! That’s a lot of freakin dogs people! Screen shot of the TV from the preliminary..

All of this excitement, and then a trip home to Long Island to see family and good friends?!!! SO RAD!!!! I broke down my bike and flew home with it, july 5th to try to catch a family gathering, my mom and her sisters at our cousin’s place in East Hampton. Unfortunately, one of my aunt’s wasn’t feeling well and they left a few hours before I got there, but mom and I made the best of this beautiful place to ourselves, played scrabble and swam laps in the pool.

I almost forgot how beautiful Long Island is, driving passed all of the wine vineyards, farms and lush green caves of trees..and then there’s the BEACH! and the pizza, and the bagels, delis, lots of family and some of my best friends ever! Here are some photos from the trip, I got to see Steph and Sam, hang out with Biscuit (Mom’s dog aka my bro-ski), :

Point Lookout with mom and ice cream <3, and a different beach day with aunt diane, aunt janette, marie, cousins nick and alex

Marie’s crazy Fish ornament, haha we had a blast

Got to shred some BMX while I was home, great session joined by Thad, Dave Hall, Darryl Nau, and Jimmy at Owl’s Head skatepark in Bay Ridge, we rode as long as we could in the rain until the ramps just got too wet.

I also had the pleasure of attending my cousin Laura’s engagement party, congrats Laura and Joey! Dad, Dana and I and we danced our bums off ha or as dad says, “we cut the rug.”

My buddy Brian Kaminsky hit me up on his way back from the beach threw my bike in the back of his truck with the surfboards and we went to visit the “Boondocks” some Long Island trails. Got to catch up with Chris Hald and Darryl Nau and helped dig for a few hours.

Got to spend time with little sister, Tami ha she is 14 and almost at tall as me now!

And I finally got to meet my friend Dave and Lauren’s baby, Penelope! They are having a destination wedding in 2 weeks in Mexico, Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend, but we had dinner and then a nice evening of ping pong, skeeball, and Cinnabags, a signature cocktail at the Tender Trap in Brooklyn joined by John Lynn and Thad and even ran into “Wormz!” as he rode by, haven’t seen him in forever!

I also got to see Nana and Aunt Terry before my trip ended, it made my trip to see you both! Dang! I wish I had more time!! At least I got to see my friend Tara and her boyfriend Adam, they are still relocated since Hurricane Sandy, holding up alright in their temporary spot until they get their place back together or find a new one. I made a pit stop to see Pete Miranda, better known as “Pistol Pete” and his lady and family who live right by my dad for a hot minute on my way home from the trails. Ah!!! And then there’s Chris Rubinich!!! Unfortunately I missed out on getting to see his son Joseph,nor did I catch his lady this trip, (she has a wild schedule nursing school and work) but he filled me in. My friends are the best, catching up like we didnt miss a beat, embracing whatever short time we have. Everyone is doing as good as they can be, and that makes me feel at ease. Smiles for miles, I made it home safe, and eventually so did my bike and the bagels! I miss you all already, thank you mom and chris, dad and dana, and marie for driving me around and feeding me lots of NY delicacies. Until next time……..

So it was kind of really last minute, but I had an opportunity to attend FISE World Series Contest in Montepellier, France for a weekend. This contest has one of the largest crowds I have ever seen! It’s awesome! There was a girls BMX park class again this year, and the weather held up awesome! The airport lost my bike for the first day and a half I was there, so I met up with the girls and filmed their practice runs. Next day my bike arrived, and I rode the first ramp I saw with Cami, it was one of those classic European contest mini ramps, 6ft tall, super wide double coping spine with a sub box on one side..super fun!!

This year the girls got a lot more practice time on the course, they let us ride during pro practice! So I was able to step up and film a little bit of everyone the first few days before our finals. Since only 9 girls appeared for their runs, we skipped qualifications and just had a final on Sunday. This probably worked out better since we got to do a demo for the crowd Saturday and have even more time on the course to film. The ladies absolutely ripped, Katherine Diaz from Venezuela pulled several tailwhips on a quarter, Shanice Silvacruz from Rotterdam pulled several flairs, consistently on the street spine, and Cami had ultimate style and flow all weekend! I pretty much just grinded the whole course in good fun. Stoked on metal pegs again! ha It was great to see a lot of the French girls return this year with some new moves, my French improved and their English AND riding improved. Tre bien!

I also got to meet and hang with FREEGUN france crew, and a few other of the FREEGUN USA teammates: Alex Jumelin, AJ Anyaya, Daniel Sandoval and Leon from the UK!

Either way, I had a great time! I hope you enjoy this edit, I am having a lot of fun learning how to do these. Thank you DK Bicycles for hookin’ me up to go over there! See you next year FISE!

Oh my how the time flew by!! Initially, we didn’t have much of a solid plan for places around Colombia that we wanted to visit. All we knew was that we were going to meet some girl riders, eat some great food, hopefully ride some cool spots, see some sights, and get to know the culture.DK Bicycles Colombian distributor Oscar and his wife hosted us for the first week or so, he took us to several parks, and had us sign posters for the locals.

About a week into our trip we got word that a girl rider from Ecuador named Monica heard we were going to be in Bogota, and hopped on a 3 day bus ride just to meet us and come ride with us! Unfortunately, during her travels, there was a bus strike, and she got stuck somewhere half way, and 3 days turned into 7 days until she finally got on a plane to make it. Diana informed us later that Monica had sold her camera to pay for her flight. Anxious for her safe arrival we changed locations to stay with our new friends Diana and her husband Ruper so we could at least get to spend some time with her the last few days of our trip whenever she finally arrived.

Diana and Ruper were great tour guides!! not only did they also make us breakfast every morning, but they pedaled with us all over the city, introduced us to new fruits and breads we don’t have in the states. They even hiked up AND down Montserrate with us! Their 6 year old son Matthew did the hike too 🙂 what a trooper! Our legs were destroyed for the next few days after that one ha!
One of the first days in the van with Oscar..and the posters we had to sign:
We even went to “el salitre” BMX race track, and met some kids who ride for Community BMX’s DK racing team..
It was amazing to see so many kids at the track the few days we went, they were killing it! Some of Colombia’s fastest! ” El dragon” Juan Pablo 8yrs, Linda Rubiano 15yrs, Santiago Suarez “hurricane•

The rest of the time was amazing here are some photos..
🔝 There were not only lots of dogs in the streets but also horses!!!
We hiked up to top of Montserrate and back down, and were sore to walk for days…across from the top was the virgin of Guadalupe, beautiful! Elevation Circa 10K feet!
The crew that made it!! Even 6yr old matthew!!
The view was gorgeous! Lots of beautiful flowers and plants, we even ate some tamales at the top 🙂
Bogota used to be “Santa Fe bocota” the capital of the region now known as Colombia. There’s a lot of history here, a lot of battles and gold! The lake behind Montserrate used to be where El Dorado and several families would throw their wedding offerings into for good luck. At some point in time when the Spaniards arrived and got wind of the gold in the lake, they even tried to take a chunk out of the lake and drain it to get to the gold! To this day you can still see where they attempted it but most of the gold has been recovered and is in the “Museo del Oro” another awesome stop. If you’re interested in the history of metals, jewelry, weapons and trade, this place is awesome! And less than $2 USD to see!

We also stopped in Simon Bolivar’s house at the base of Montserrate. Beautiful beautiful garden..

On Sunday the girl from Ecuador still hasn’t arrived, so we participated in “ciclovia” which is an all day Sunday bike ride. The city closes down a lot of roads just for bicycles from morning until late afternoon. So fun!

La plaza de Bolivar, the capital.. A lot of history here, this is where everyone comes to protest anything and everything.

There isn’t really much of a middle class in Bogota, it’s seemingly poor or super rich.. This plus the government finally compromising some what could be “temporary peace” with the drug guerrillas and terrorists are just a few reasons Bogota hasn’t been very popular for tourists. There is definitely some sketchy areas to avoid, we saw a car in front of us get robbed at a red light, (lock your doors!)..yikes! These areas are easily avoidable if you have the right tour guide..being on the look out, always looking 360 was key to having a safe trip here. “Ojos buenos”

In a nutshell We learned that Colombian people poor or rich, truly have the biggest hearts, and make sacrifices second to no one here in the states. We got to ride some amazing spots, make some amazing friends and learn a lot about Colombia and its history..and food! Oh my gosh the food!!! Everyday there was a new type of mango or fruit I have never heard of that was delicious! Fresh juice on every corner and so cheap!

I definitely need to come back to Colombia!! (When there isn’t a bus strike) we have yet to visit Baranquilla, Girardot, Cali, Cartegena, Sierra Nevada Santa Marta, and the amazons.
Our friends Alejo and Cassie from Chicago drove all over Colombia a week before we arrived and brought us back some “Hormigas De Colona” or famous fried, big-booty ants. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, choked one down, woof! Tasted like crunchy salty popcorn kernel mixed with dirt. Eh, not my favorite.. Somehow didn’t yack.

Colombia is crazy, so much talent, and SO many riders, but sadly, very few will ever afford the visa to visit the USA. Hopefully our friend Diana can find a way! She can bunnyhop higher than most dudes and has a lot of style when it comes to jumping. Keep your eyes peeled for a little video edit of our trip 🙂

Longest blog update for me ever!!! Ha, thanks for reading, quite a gap without wifi to play catch up. Finally home safe in the states, time for SXSW here in Austin..aka Work work work!! Come visit at Shakespeare’s Pub on 6th

Some love and healing vibes for my friend teammate “Maddog” in Colombia:

So exciting to imagine that my Grandpa totally worked at this airport at some point as an airplane mechanic.

Our welcoming crew to Bogota was SO awesome, our host and hostess (middle of the photo) Oscar Calderon and his wife Maria Fernanda brought our new friends Dianna, Diana, Diana (local girl bmx riders) and lejandro to pick is up.

There is so much going on what a hustle and bustle style city. Even traffic alone is insane, I will never complain about traffic in Austin again haha. Here’s a view from the van:

Everyone is so hospitable and nice. We went on a mini tour of some local parks and met some more local riders who we will go to ride with today!
Here’s a photo of our first meal, I stole this from Lindsay:

So I have been slacking hard at blogging but keeping super busy healing my knee, went for the MRI and thankfully no surgery needed! Just lots more physical therapy, so I have been at it for a few weeks now and have been rolling around testing the waters.

And how I dislike skipping so much good stuff in the past month, I feel obligated to just carry on starting with this trip!

My friend, roommate Lindsay Hale and I couldn’t believe our eyes when we searched the flights to Colombia after some friends mentioned some super crazy deals to Bogota. We couldn’t pass it up, the flights were more affordable than for either one of us to fly home to NY or Utah from Austin! So we booked our flights, I rehabbed my knee like crazy and we drove up to Dallas for our flight we are boarding right now!!
This is all so surreal, I am way excited for this adventure, my grandparents (RIP Olga y Gustavo) are from Colombia and are a huge reason I made an effort to learn Spanish. They e always showed me photos and described to me what it was like growing up there. I am so excited to finally see for myself what it’s like! Thankful for the BMX community, we reached out on Facebook to some Colombian bmx riders and networked with any connections we could find and everyone we have talked to has been so welcoming and helpful! DK bicycles distributor has offered to host us and show us around. Stoked!

We had a long day of getting ready and driving to Dallas and staying up to staple together copies of yeah Zine for the lady riders down there.

Tired faces!! First plane boarded!

I will do my best via this blog, nina_burrito, @yeahzine and @linzeehale on Instagram #yeahtripcolombia to keep everyone posted 😄

Just got home from visiting the doctor, from his strength tests, he concluded that I have sprained the Posterior cruciate Ligament of my knee. As per Joe Rich’s initial advice I ended up doing some of my own research to see what exactly he was describing and get a better understanding of what I did to myself.

This description is pretty dead on, blunt force while my ankle and knee were flexed as I hit the street from the top of the ledge I bailed off of.

Treatment: ice the back of my knee, ibuprofen for two weeks until follow up appointment. Projected healing is 4-6 weeks off of the BMX and limited to flat road bike rides. I’m hoping to take care and be back ASAP!

To pass the time, yesterday the Aussies and I went to the gun range. It was my first time at an indoor range, and the Aussies, and our friend Emily’s first time shooting a gun. It was ladies night so it was only $7.50 an hour plus the cost of ammo. Not bad!We started with some 9mm handguns then worked our way up to the rifles. This photo collage posted by b-dogg ha! #america #tx

Fun fun fun. Leah came with me today to see dr.Mullins he pinpointed the problem with her back she has an inflamed nerve. So we hit up the craft store on our way home today and grabbed some paint. Leah got some acrylics and I got some clear coat and spray paint. Going to pull my bike completely apart and give it a make over to pass the time. Here is a before photo:

Some of the DK Bicycles Team and I took a trip out to Woodward West one of the best summer camps on earth made friends with campers and made this sweet edit! We entered it into the Woodward West “shoot out” video contest and need your votes to help uswin!! A lot if $ is up for grabs!
Watch our video and vote for DK by clicking HERE

Screen shot of some of the fun 🙂

Please share the link with all of your friends and family and vote for DK! You can vote once a day from your smart phone, iPad, computer so vote once a day from each device daily and help us out!! Thanks again!!! Go DK!!!